Bill Harris, QMI Agency

It's not completely random that Prince is guest-starring in a new episode of New Girl airing after the Super Bowl on Sunday.

“He said it's his favourite show,” said Zooey Deschanel, star of New Girl.

“He's like, 'New Girl is my favourite show, I watch it every week, I watch that and the news.' I was so excited. And his band, they all watch it, too, I guess.

“He started emailing us last year, saying he wanted to be on the show. It kind of seemed too good to be true.”

But now it is true, as Prince will guest-star as himself. Really, who else could he play?

“I heard (about New Girl getting a post-Super Bowl slot) at the upfronts last (spring) so we knew we'd have to make it something really, really special,” Deschanel said. “So at least we had a good amount of time to prepare. Our writing staff was working on this episode for months.

“Yeah, it's huge, it's amazing, and we're so lucky that Fox has chosen us to air after the Super Bowl. Yeah, it is a lot of pressure, but it's exciting. I feel we have a really, really great episode.”

Now, Canadian broadcasting rules understandably remain a puzzle to many Canadians (side note: if you do get how it works, have you ever tried explaining it to someone from another country? Bewilderment is common). Anyway, for those who need a refresher, here's what is going to happen on Sunday:

The Super Bowl is airing on Fox and CTV.

Because CTV has purchased Canadian rights to the Super Bowl, that means whether you're watching on a CTV channel or a Fox channel, it will look the same during the game, because CTV gets to superimpose its ads over the American ones. That's why some Canadians lament every year that they miss out on the big-buzz new commercials upon which U.S. companies spend millions.

When the game is over, though, things change. If you have tuned into a CTV channel, a new episode of the homegrown reality-competition series MasterChef Canada will follow the game. However, if you have tuned into a Fox channel, post-game you will see the aforementioned new episode of New Girl, followed by a new episode of Andy Samberg's Golden Globe-winning rookie sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

And just to add one last layer of complexity, the Canadian rights to New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are held by City. Therefore, at whatever moment Fox starts airing those shows on Sunday night, City will cut in and begin airing those episodes, too.

It's enough to turn your face purple, which brings us back to Prince.

“There's a makeover part,” said Deschanel, who plays lead character Jess on New Girl. “Prince gives Jess a makeover, so he had a lot of input into that. The whole thing is that it's Prince giving Jess a makeover, so he really had to choose what I was going to wear.”

Does that mean Prince doesn't like Jess' regular style?

“I didn't ask him whether he did, so I don't know,” Deschanel said.

Well, New Girl may be Prince's favourite show, but I would imagine through his lilac-coloured glasses, he sees room for stylistic improvement just about everywhere.